Battleground Bihar: BJP to tell voters how Lalu, Nitish betrayed JP's legacy by joining forces with Congress

Days ahead of the first phase of polling in the Bihar Assembly elections, the BJP is all set to invoke social activist and Emergency icon Jayaprakash Narayan to take on the RJD-JD (U) alliance.

The saffron party will remind people of how RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have betrayed the legacy of JP by joining hands with the Congress only for political gain.

The BJP has planned to celebrate the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan as 'save democracy day'. The party has planned to hold grand celebrations and highlight his role in opposing the Emergency in his home state of Bihar.

ALSO READ | Bihar polls: BJP plans 40 rallies to address issue of development

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest at a programme, which will be hosted in Delhi in memory of the socialist leader and to honour those people jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency. BJP president Amit Shah will organise a function in Jayaprakash Narayan's native village of Sitabdiara to pay homage to the leader.

Organised by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Jayanti Samiti at Vigyan Bhawan, the event will see the prime minister honour some people who were detained under the MISA during Emergency, 800 of whom will attend the function.

Former deputy prime minister LK Advani, who played a stellar role during the Emergency would also grace the occasion, along with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

ALSO READ | BJP promises beef ban in Bihar after coming to power

Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, who had coined the 'Sampoorna Kranti' slogan from his home state, had galvanised non-Congress parties, including Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, during the 70s.

The five-phased Assembly polls in Bihar, where the BJP-led NDA is pitched against the grand alliance of JD (U), RJD and the Congress, begin on October 12. The results will be announced on November 8.

The BJP also wants to expose the followers of the socialist leaders, who they allege, have allied with the Congress for their political gains. The Congress government, led by Indira Gandhi, had imposed the Emergency.

"The celebration of Lok Nayak's 113th birth anniversary shall be a reminder to the nation that the spirit of democracy must live. Those who fought under the leadership of JP, against the dictatorial regime of Indira Gandhi during the emergency, will carry on the legacy of the great visionary," BJP general secretary Arun Singh said.

Singh said the 40th anniversary of the Emergency also falls this year and this will be highlighted to people across the country, who will take a pledge to save democracy.

BJP Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh, however, said the party will expose some people, who for their political gain have joined hands with the Congress, whom JP had opposed all through his life.

Singh said despite his failing health, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan rose like a sphinx and challenged Indira Gandhi with the power of people by organising the largest people's movement in the country since Independence. The JP movement during the Emergency is often called India's second freedom struggle. He added that JP gave the call for 'Total Revolution' which envisaged complete transformation of society and it assimilated the concept of integral humanism propounded by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.

Over a dozen central ministers will visit different states on the occasion and recall the "success" of anti-Congress struggle, which culminated in the overthrowing of Indira Gandhi and ascendancy of first the non-Congress dispensation at the Centre.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh would address a public meeting in Bihar. Similarly, programmes are being lined up for other Union ministers by the party headquarters.